Ryan grew up in Northern Virginia and I’m originally from the west coast, but we were both living in Richmond when we met. We met at the restaurant we were both working at – Ryan was my trainer. We became friends, and then about 6 months later started dating. We were together for about a year and a half when Ryan proposed. We had plans to go to Seattle for a few days, and Ryan new I would be expecting “something” on the trip, so he actually proposed the night before we left, saying “You know what would make this trip awesome? If you went as my fiance.” Etc. It was a simple, but sweet proposal. :)

And now, a bit on why they decided to do a stop motion video for their alternative Save the Date:

We came up with the idea for the video by looking online at different save the date ideas. I came across a couple stop motion videos and really loved the idea. We got the I love so and so more idea from a specific video and expanded upon it to fit our personalities. A good friend of mine helped us photograph it and when did the video at her place – a small farm house in Richmond, but we didn’t have any professional help. I’m an art educator, so I’m familiar with stop motion. We came up with an overall idea of what we wanted to do and then kind of built the video on the fly. One interesting note, we were making the video the day of the earthquake. :)

Sometimes I really wish Andy & I did this for our own Save the Date. It’s such a fun, alternative way to share your wedding date with people – and it’s also super eco-friendly (no paper! no stamps!). Plus you get to tell people a little bit about yourselves, which is good for couples that haven’t met each others extended families and such!